Awake My Soul
by syntheticpoetry
Summary: AU based on a tumblr post where Blaine Anderson and Darren Criss are twin brothers. Darren can't help but meddle in Blaine's love life, but will his interference pay off?


**Author's Note: As the summary explains, this is based on a tumblr post that surfaced during the Bryant Park ice skating filming that suggested Blaine and Darren as twin brothers. Please review if you like what you see or if you'd like to see more!**

* * *

"Darren, come _on_!" Blaine called from the base of the staircase, checking the mirror on the wall to his left to make sure all of his curls were securely gelled down. "We're going to be late, what are you even doing up there?"

"Be down in a minute!"

"You said that five minutes ago!" Blaine replied in an exasperated tone of voice as he began trudging up the stairs. "We're supposed to meet with Wes and Nick before class," he pushed open the door to Darren's room.

Darren was sprawled out on his bed, cell phone pressed to his ear, as he pulled his pants on.

"...I'm interrupting something inappropriate, aren't I?" Blaine turned away from his brother, choosing to study a particularly interesting paint stain on the wall by the doorframe.

"No," Darren snorted and Blaine could hear the ruffling of the bed, indicating he must have sat up. "Okay, yeah I'll see you later. Cool. You can turn around, Blainers," he added with a snicker.

"I told you not to call me that," Blaine turned to face him again with a nasty glare. "Who was that?"

"Just a guy, you don't know him," Darren smirked.

"Well, whatever. Can we go now? Please?" Blaine glowered at him, resisting the urge to tap his fingers impatiently on Darren's unorganised and overcrowded dresser.

"Only because you asked so nicely," Darren stood up, pressing the creases out of his grey slacks and yanked his Dalton Academy blazer off of his computer desk chair. "Oh, what are you doing after school, by the way?"

"You mean after we have rehearsal?" Blaine prompted, occasionally having to remind his brother of their practice sessions with the Warblers.

"Yeah, of course."

"Coffee at the Lima Bean," Blaine furrowed his brows—surely his own brother should have grown accustomed to his daily routine by now. "Why?"

"Just checking," Darren smiled knowingly and breezed past him; Blaine knew that look, his brother was clutching a secret so close to his chest that Blaine wouldn't be able to pry it free no matter what he tried. He made no further comment and followed Darren out to the car.

* * *

"Great job today, guys," Wes grinned around the room. "Same time tomorrow!"

Blaine gathered his belongings before unbuttoning his blazer and fanning himself with his hand as Darren crossed the room and approached him. "I think everyone here but me is in love with you," he sank down onto the couch and pulled a red scarf from his backpack. Blaine shrugged in response, but smiled a little to himself once his face was shielded from Darren's eyes. "Can I come with you for coffee?"

"Since when do you drink coffee?" Blaine raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I'll drink hot chocolate then," he groaned as he stood up, acting as though the task was much more difficult for him than it really was. "Come on, let's go."

"I love that you asked and still just invited yourself anyways," Blaine shook his head and led the way to the parking lot after bidding the rest of the Warblers farewell.

"Hey, so I've been meaning to ask you lately," Darren climbed into the passenger seat and waited for Blaine to get in before continuing. "How have you been doing lately? The uh—it'll be what? Three years coming up soon, right?"

"Pretty soon, yeah," Blaine responded in the quiet voice reserved only for when they had this conversation. "I'm doing alright, I guess."

"Blainers," Darren smiled wearily at Blaine's annoyance with the nickname. "Blaine, I know something's up."

"Really, I'm doing better—"

"Are you having nightmares again?" Darren sat up straighter, crossing his legs underneath himself.

"No," Blaine answered a little too quickly and then let out a long sigh. "Yes."

"Same as before?"

"Dare, I don't really want to talk about it. Not right now," Blaine focused on the road.

"Okay," Darren turned his attention to the window. "Okay, but if you do-"

"If I do then I can come to you, I know," Blaine turned into the Lima Bean parking lot and glanced over at Darren. "Thanks."

Darren kept his gaze out the window, craning his neck as though searching for someone before holding a thumbs up to Blaine. "Anytime. Now, how's about you buy me that hot chocolate?"

"I never agreed to—" Blaine began to protest but Darren was already out of the car and making his way towards the coffee shop where he proceeded to hold the door wide open. Blaine huffed and followed after him, crossing the threshold and feeling his anger slowly ebb away as the familiar warmth and atmosphere pressed subtle, aromatic coffee kisses upon his windswept cheeks.

As they approached the short queue up to the counter, Darren continued to look around. "Are you meeting someone here?" Blaine took a step forward and studied the menu behind the register.

"Nuh-uh," Darren stood on his tiptoes and lost his balance, flailing his arms to keep himself upright.

"What the hell are you doing then?" Blaine held a hand out to steady his brother.

"Observing," Darren stated matter-of-factly. "Hey, it's our turn!" Blaine glanced between Darren and a teenage boy behind the counter. "Order and I'll swipe a table for us," Darren clapped Blaine playfully on the shoulder and hurried away before an argument could ensue.

Blaine sighed and placed an order for a medium hot chocolate and a medium soy latté before trailing down to the end of the counter to wait for their drinks to be made. He leaned against the counter and scanned the room until his eyes fell on Darren and a lanky, brunette boy. The boy was sitting at a table and Darren stood beside the table, smiling and completely at ease as he spoke. Blaine always envied this quality about his brother; though they were completely alike in image, it stopped there. Darren was naturally outgoing, making friends with anything that breathed; Blaine, on the other hand, feigned confidence and, though he was friendly to others, had a hard time actually relating to and trusting them.

He watched the interaction with curiosity, wondering if this boy was someone Darren knew already or someone he had just met. It was always impossible to distinguish. The boy smiled up at Darren and Blaine tried to swallow back a lump that had mysteriously appeared in his throat. He was definitely beautiful and up until the moment Blaine saw him smile—crinkled eyes and teeth bared—he hadn't realised just _how _beautifulhe was.

"Hot chocolate for... Darren and soy latté for Blaine?" a voice to Blaine's right roused him from his thoughts and he mumbled a quick "thank you" before swiping their drinks and walking towards Darren and this mystery boy.

"Thank youuuuu," Darren extended his hand for his cup and sang the words. "This is Kurt, by the way. I've asked if we could sit with him since every other table is taken."

"Hello," Kurt smiled and Blaine pretended to take a sip of his coffee to hide his attempt at swallowing the same imaginary lump. He lowered the cup after a second and offered a polite, shy smile.

"Hi, my name's Blaine."

"We'll I'll let you two talk," Darren motioned to leave.

"Wait, where are you going?" Blaine failed miserably hiding the panic from his voice.

"Ummm..." Darren looked around, "bathroom." He gave Blaine a pat on the shoulder and disappeared amongst a crowd of teenagers that had just walked in. Blaine gave Kurt a wary look, who proceeded to smile right back at him.

"He do this to you often?" Kurt closed a sketchbook, a trace of curious amusement flickering in his bright eyes.

"Not as often as you might think. So, uh..." he trailed off and took a sip of coffee to excuse the gap of silence.

"So you two go to Dalton as well?"

"How did you—"

"Your blazer," Kurt giggled. "I'm not wearing mine, but I just transferred there recently."

"Oh," Blaine replied, suddenly feeling very dumb. "_Oh_," he added as a thought came to mind, "You didn't just meet my brother for the first time here today, did you?"

" 'Fraid not," Kurt said, eyes still twinkling as they remained fixed on Blaine.

"You met him at school?"

"Mmhm, my first day about... two or three weeks ago," Kurt dug through a leather satchel and pulled out his wallet. "He talked about you a lot—no, no, nothing bad, don't look so terrified!" he laughed and placed a hand over Blaine's as a friendly gesture.

"What did he say?" Blaine inquired, cautiously, and stared down at Kurt's hand for a little longer than he intended to.

"That you've been going through a bit of a rough time and that he thought you and I would get along really well," Kurt withdrew his hand. "Excuse me a second? I'm just going to order—"

"CanIbuyyouadrink?" Blaine suddenly blurted out as the warmth of Kurt's hand flitted away from him.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Could I, um, buy you a drink?" Blaine repeated, slowly and self-consciously.

Kurt grinned in response, "Only if you let me buy your next one."

"Deal," Blaine replied coolly, much to his surprise, and approached the counter with him; the smile on his face was the first genuine one to grace his usually serious demeanor in a very long time.

* * *

"Why do you always take so long to get ready?" Blaine waited by the front door impatiently, shouting up the stairs. "We're going to be _late_! I'm leaving without you if you're not down here in—"

"Coming, coming, coming," Darren shouted in mock annoyance as he slid down the banister of the stairs. "Woahhh," he flailed his arms and ran right into the front door. Blaine shook his head in obvious disapproval.

"I honestly don't know what could possibly take you so long—you never even style your hair," Blaine looked his brother over, taking in the appearance of loose blue jeans and a pullover Dalton academy sweatshirt and mentally compared them to his skin tight black jeans and slim fitting grey v-neck sweater.

"Your judgment is going to be the real reason we're late for your date," Darren responded with just as much sass. The mention of the word "date" seemed to be enough to snap Blaine back into overdrive and he flung open the front door and half ran to the car. He'd never felt so flustered, so deliciously on the brink of total loss of control, in all of his life. Darren trailed behind him, purposely dragging his feet, and snickered the entire way. "I'm driving, by the way!"

Normally, Blaine would fight Darren tooth and nail on this, but he wordlessly threw the keys to him and stepped into the passenger side. Darren narrowed his eyes suspiciously and started up th car. "That was easier than I thought it would be..." Blaine ignored him in favour of staring at a text exchange between himself and Kurt from the night before. Darren sighed dreamily, and loudly, beside him and drove off. It was about half an hour into th drive when Blaine finallylooked up and frowned as his senses slowly trickled back to him.

"This... isn't the way to the Lima Bean," he set his phone on his lap and looked to Darren. "Where are we going?"

You'll see," Darren moved his hand to the radio and worked his way through the preset buttons.

"But Kurt—"

"Knows where to go. Don't worry, I got this," he slapped his hand on the steering wheel when Katy Perry overtook the speakers. "Yes!"

Blaine looked back to his phone and frowned again—Kurt hadn't mentioned anything about a change of plans. He bit his lip and turned his attention to the window to try to distinguish where they were heading. "Wait," he piped up when Darren took the exit ramp. "Wait, are we going to the ice skating rink?"

"I plead the fifth," Darren stuck his tongue out slightly as he concentrated on merging into traffic. A few minutes later he pulled into the parking lot of an ice skating rink he and Blaine had visited quite frequently since their childhood.

"I didn't know Kurt knew how to skate," Blaine was eager to strip his seatbelt off and get inside.

"He doesn't," Darren smirked. "But you do."

Blaine's mouth fell open for a full twenty seconds before he snapped it shut and smiled back at his overly supportive—and, arguably, overly mischievous—younger-by-four-minutes brother. Before Blaine could express any sentiment though, Darren was out of the car and halfway towards the building; Blaine clamoured out and jogged briskly to catch up to him. Kurt was already waiting for them outside with a tray of coffee, one for himself and Blaine, and a hot chocolate for Darren.

"Have I told you how much I love your boyfriend yet, Blainers?" Darren swiped the cup and took a long sip before letting out a loud and sensual "Mmmmm."

Blaine's cheeks turned a deep scarlet at the title Darren had granted them and he looked to Kurt self-consciously for validation to his brother's claim.

"You can tell me now much you love me to my face," Kurt grinned slyly and hooked his arm through Blaine's. Blaine instinctively curled Kurt's arm closer to his body, absorbing warmth and vanilla, and laughed nervously.

"So, did you bring our skates or...?"

"Oh!" Darren dug the car keys out of his pocket. "Yeah, they're in the trunk!" He was at the car and back again in record time, two pairs of ice skates slung over his shoulders. "Onward!" he marched inside with Kurt and Blaine trailing behind.

"I'm going to go pick out a pair to rent," Kurt announced when Darren and Blaine sat down to lace up their skates before wandering off. Darren stepped out onto the ice and waited against the edge of the rink until Blaine joined him.

"Hey, I'll race you!" Darren announced with wild enthusiasm.

"No, Darren," Blaine peered around for Kurt.

"Come on, first to the other side wins!"

"No, Darre—"

"Don't you want to show off for Kurt?" Darren teased behind a smirk.

"...123GO!" Blaine suddenly counted down and darted off.

"Hey, no fair!" Darren called after him before following.

Blaine stopped just before he was about to touch the other end of the rink and faced Darren with a smug smile. "Two out of three," Darren stopped beside Blaine. This time we both count."

"Fine," Blaine repositioned himself.

"3..."

"2..."

"1!" They both took off with such ferocity it was a wonder they hadn't managed to split the rink straight down the middle. They simultaneously reached the other side, spraying ice all over the wall of the rink, and Kurt clapped loudly, catching Blaine's attention.

"Wow," he laughed. "Well, don't I feel completely inadequate now."

"It's easy once you get the hang of it," Darren grinned and lifted himself up so he was sitting on the ledge of the rink. "Blaine will help you, won't you, Blainers?"

"Yeah," Blaine was so engrossed with looking at Kurt that he didn't even catch the nickname. "Have you ever skated before at all?"

"...mm, nope! I can ride a bike though," he laughed in reply. "I think I can keep my balance pretty well," he added and slowly made his way out onto the rink, clutching onto the wall for dear life as his legs wobbled unsteadily.

"Dozen cupcakes says he goes down within the first five minutes," Darren commented from the sidelines with amusement dancing in his eyes at the spectacle unfurling right before him.

"Shut up, Darren," Blaine replied dismissively and skated over to Kurt, holding his hands out to him. "Just try to stand up straight and I'll pull you along for a little while until you get used to it."

Kurt hesitantly removed his hands from the wall and practically slapped his hands into Blaine's, gripping them tightly. "I'm a fairly decent baker, you know."

"I don't doubt that," Blaine shifted his feet so that he could skate backwards and pull Kurt along for the ride. "But do you really want to lose to _him_?"

"...good point," Kurt chuckled and gripped Blaine's hands tighter as his legs started to drift apart. "W-woah, ahhh, no—"

"I've got you," Blaine tugged Kurt closer and slid a hand around his waist. Their bodies were so close that Blaine could feel Kurt's heart through the layers of fabric, fluttering wildly, but not thumping nearly as loudly as his own.

"So you do," Kurt's breath tickled his forehead and Blaine suddenly realised just how beautiful Kurt's neck looked from this view.

"For god's sake, kiss already and get it over with!" Darren cupped his hands and yelled.

Kurt jumped at the sudden outburst and lost his balance, bringing Blaine down right on top of him. "Owwww," he laughed and shifted beneath the shorter boy.

"Oh my god, are you alright? I'm so sorry—"

Kurt leaned up and pressed their mouths together, delicately, and Blaine couldn't help but react with, possibly, more than a little force. Darren's catcalls and whoops melted away as they spent the next few minutes exploring foreign territory. Blaine was the first to pull away, reluctantly, a little winded with cheeks flushed; Kurt merely gazed up at him as a giggle erupted from his swollen lips.

"Guess I owe someone some cupcakes," he said.

"Hope you're not too upset about that," Blaine replied, starting to move off of him.

"I think I'll manage just fine," Kurt practically purred as he pulled Blaine back in for another kiss.


End file.
